Is Ubair the New Uber for Private Jets?

As car-sharing services like Uber and Lyft continue to grow in popularity, one company is looking to emulate the rides-for-all formula, but for private jets. Meet Ubair.

With a name like Ubair, a private jet operator can't go wrong—right? That’s what the latest start-up in the world of private air travel is hoping. With the punny moniker (a play on the extremely popular ride-sharing app Uber) and a booking method that can be reduced to a “tap of the app,” as the company puts it, Ubair is clearly hoping that it can reel in consumers who are fed up with commercial air travel, but may have been put off by the perceived expense and elitism of private flying.

“It is inspired by Uber,” admitted Ubair CEO Justin Sullivan, just in case anyone had any doubts. “Our goal is to bring the seamlessness and ease of use of Uber to private aviation.” Sullivan, who’s been involved with several private jet ventures, said he came up with the idea because of the ubiquity of apps on smartphones. “It’s an easy access point for private aviation,” he said. Unlike fractional ownership or jet cards, there’s no membership fee or deposit required, and with the app, users can quickly obtain one-way quotes for flights anywhere in North America and the Caribbean. And like the car service that inspired it, Ubair comes in various flavors: from the lowest cost prop plane (Ubair Taxi) to a more glamorous Gulfstream (Ubair “Heavy”), and several categories in between.

The comparison with its famous namesake only goes so far, of course. Uber disrupted ground transportation by offering a better product at mostly lower prices; private flying, even at a discount, will almost always be more expensive than commercial flights. And there are some aspects of Uber that Ubair would just as soon not mimic—especially with the lower-end services where there have been complaints about unprofessional drivers.

Ubair’s “drivers”—pilots—are highly trained and all aircraft and crew “are held to the highest safety rating," according to David Tait, a former executive at Virgin Atlantic who is also part of the management team. He also said that rates could be surprisingly affordable depending on the size of the party traveling; for example, a family of five could fly in a full-size jet from New York to Stowe, Vermont, for around $2,000 one-way—not much more than the cost of a commercial flight for that number of passengers and their gear.

Tait said that Ubair has not heard anything from Uber but added, "We’d be happy to have an Uber car meet all of our flights." (Uber did not respond to a request for comment.) And if this all sounds familiar, that's because it is: Sullivan labeled his previous venture, the ill-fated Jumpseat, as "the Airbnb of air travel."